Putting Things Back Together
by KissPookie28
Summary: After a bullet to the skull, Brooke can't remember the past four years of her life. When she's left to put the pieces back together will she like all that she has to recall? Or are some memories better left forgotten?
1. Chapter 1

Haley sat curled up in her husband's lap, his arms encircled around her. Peyton sat in the chair beside the two, her finger constantly twisting one golden curl. Lucas lay with his head resting on the bed. His hand was clutching the hand of the sleeping brunette. Lucas lifted his head.

"The two of you should take off," he spoke to his brother and sister in law. Haley gave a nervous look towards the bed. "I'll call if there's any change."

"We should probably go pick up Jamie," Nathan told his wife. Haley unfolded herself as she stood up. Taking her hand in his, Nathan pulled her to the door.

"The minute there's any change," Haley told Lucas as she left the room. Monitors beeped as Lucas brushed a thumb over Brooke's face. For a moment his hand stilled, resting softly on her cheek. Her face so pale and beautiful. A sniffle brought him back to reality. He turned and saw that Peyton was starting to cry.

"Hey, hey what's the matter?" Not really wanting to, Lucas released Brooke's hand and moved to Peyton. He took up Nathan and Haley's chair, scooting it closer so that he could pull Peyton to him. She began to sob into his shoulder, her tears soaking through.

"What if she never wakes up?" she croaked through sobs.

"Brooke's a fighter. There's no way she's giving up. In fact I think she'll wake up soon and smack you for doubting her." A half hearted chuckle escaped Peyton's lips. A nurse walked in.

"I'm sorry, but visiting hours are over." Peyton and Lucas looked to Brooke.

"Can't we…" Peyton started.

"The patient needs her rest."

"Ok first of all 'the patient' has a name, it's Brooke," Lucas grumbled. "And secondly, she's unconscious how much do you really think we're going to disturb her?"

"I'm sorry, it's hospital policy. You can come back in the morning." The nurse stepped out of the doorway, her eyes never leaving the two young adults.

Trying to avoid a fight, Peyton tried to reason with the brooding blonde. "Lucas, we'll come back in the morning." Another grumble, but Lucas got to his feet. The two walked over to the bed, both planting a kiss on Brooke's forehead

"We'll be back soon," Lucas whispered to her. And then they were gone.

"It's sad really, poor girl." Brooke could hear the voices from a distance.

"Depressing more like. She had everything going for her and then…" the voice trailed off. Brooke wanted to call out and ask who they were talking about but she felt herself going under. There was a flash of blue and an indecipherable image in her mind before she succumbed to the darkness.

Birds. She could hear birds but the seemed to be so far. The darkness tried to pull her back but Brooke fought it, she followed the chirping of birds, reaching towards them. But her body wouldn't move. Blue. Suitcases. The birds were closer now. Brooke tried to move her hand. Unbeknownst to her four young adults in the room with her had noticed her feeble attempts at motion. Five were in the room but all but one were holding their breath. Finally Brooke fluttered her eyes open. The four let out the air they were holding in. Before Brooke really knew what was going on a body collided with her.

"Don't ever do that again." A dark headed boy came and pulled the girl off of Brooke.

"Let's give her some space to breathe," Nathan told his wife.

"I was afraid you weren't coming back," Peyton told Brooke as she walked up and gave her friend a much gentler hug. Brooke hugged back with a shocked expression. Lucas hadn't moved from his station in the corner of the room. Brooke blinked a couple of times, taking in her surroundings.

"Haley, what happened to your baby?" Brooke indicated her friend's stomach which used to be protruding. Everyone's face fell.

"Jamie? Brooke I haven't been pregnant in a while. Jamie…he's four now." Peyton put her hand to her forehead.

"No, no you're about…" Brooke did a mental calculation, "…five months along!" Haley shook her head, the tears beginning to fall.

"The doctors told us that this might happen," Nathan muttered to his wife. "With that kind of head trauma, it's hard to avoid memory loss." Why was he talking about her like she wasn't in the room? And what head trauma was he talking about?

"Brooke how old are you?" Peyton whispered.

"Eighteen," Brooke told her, confused that her best friend would forget her age. This time Peyton was crying.

"No." Peyton shook her head side to side. "No Brooke, you're twenty two."

"But that means that…that means that I've lost…." Brooke stammered.

"Four years," Lucas finally moved from his post in the corner. He moved to Brooke's side and took her hand. And then Brooke felt it, the small gold band on his hand.

"Four years for you to get married," she chided him. But that wasn't right, the last thing she remembered, she and Lucas were together. Unless. Brooke looked down at her left hand. There was a gold band just like Lucas's.

"It was a beautiful ceremony," Haley supplied.

"Everyone was there," Peyton continued.

"Everyone joked that apparently the Scott brothers liked to marry young," Haley continued.

"But I told them that that's just what you do when you find someone that you can't live your life without. The other half of you." He touched her cheek gently. "I love you Pretty Girl." He kissed her forehead.

"I love you too." She pulled him to her. Their lips connected and it felt right. This was something that Brooke could never forget; the way their lips knew each other. The four pulled chairs around the bed and Brooke began to interrogate them about their lives in the past four years.

"I'll see you all tomorrow!" Brooke called to her friends' retreating backs. "And bring that godson of mine by sometime," Brooke directed to Haley and Nathan.

"Yeah over my dead body," Nathan said just loud enough for Brooke to hear. She was taken aback by this. Sure she and Nathan had never been close, but she at least thought that he liked her a bit. But as she thought back to the visit, she remembered how cold he had been. How he had not participated in the conversation. Then again her two best friends had pretty much monopolized the entire time, maybe he just couldn't get a word in. Brooke laughed out loud. The nurse who was changing her iv drip gave her a look.

"Something funny dear?"

"Not really," Brooke told her as she instinctively reached up to brush a lock of hair from her forehead. But surprisingly there was no hair in her eyes. Brooke reached up and felt the top of her head. Short spikes poked at her hand. Amidst them was a long stretch of skin that felt as if it was scarred or at least in the process of forming a scar. "Do you have a mirror?" Brooke asked the nurse. The nurse gave her a strained look and then walked out of the room. A moment later she returned with a mirror clutched to her chest.

"I would wait if I were you," the nurse told her nervously.

"Please, I need to see." Brooke reached out a hand, surprised that it took so much effort. Reluctantly, the mirror was placed in her palm. She took a few inhales and then raised the mirror to examine herself. Her hair had been shaved off. Along the right side of her head ran a thin pink line, the remnants of a surgery.

"Personally, I still think you look beautiful. If I looked half as good as you, maybe I wouldn't still be single." Brooke hadn't taken her eyes off the girl in the mirror. Or rather, herself. She couldn't quite grasp the fact that this scarred GI Jane look alike was herself. A small tear ran down her cheek.

"What happened?" The nurse shifted awkwardly to her other foot. She glanced to the door as if willing someone else to appear and answer the question.

"A bullet," the nurse finally replied. "A bullet to your skull. But you're a very lucky girl it didn't affect anything major."

"Nothing major!" Brooke asked in disbelief. "I lost four years of my life."

"Most people would kill for forgetting it all. Be grateful."

"Grateful? I hope that whoever did this to me burns in hell!" Brooke spat."Don't be too quick to judge my dear," the kind old nurse spoke. "You don't know what was going on in that person's life. Sometimes things just get too hard."

"They never get that hard." Brooke crossed her arms. The nurse cocked her head as if she wanted to say something, but she held it in. "Why four years?"

"Excuse me?"

"I mean I could have forgotten three years or five years or my entire life, why four?"

"Well I'm no psychologist, but it seems to me like the human body does some pretty incredible things to keep it safe both physically and mentally. Often times we suppress memories rather than deal with them. Perhaps this is your body's way of telling you that whatever happened to you four years ago is something you would like to forget." With that the nurse turned on her heel, leaving Brooke alone to wrestle with her thoughts.

**Reviews always appreciated.**


	2. Chapter 2

**This story is going better than anticipated. I'll probably have the final chapter up before midnight. (Probably even earlier) I really hope you enjoy this story. Reviews are much appreciated.**

A slam of a door. Stomping up the stairs. A woman screams, the suitcase tumbles open. Blue. Suitcase. Blue. Suitcase. With a gasp Brooke sat up in bed. "What's wrong Pretty Girl?" Lucas asked as he walked over to her.

"Nothing bad dream."

"Haley there is no way I'm letting my son get near her!" Brooke heard Nathan yell from the hall. "To tell you the truth I don't even know why I'm here."

"Nathan I know you're not her biggest fan right now…"

"You're damn right I'm not."

"But you're here because you love me. And I think that it's about time we bring Jamie in to see his godmother."

"No. Subject me to her all you have to, but Jamie is not coming here. I won't have her in the same room as her. Hell I won't even have her in the same building!" Lucas squeezed Brooke's hand a little tighter.

"Fine Nathan. Why don't you just go home. I'll see you two there." Brooke winced as she heard the distinct sounds of Nathan storming out of the hospital. Soon Haley's bright face appeared in her doorway.

"How are you feeling today Brooke?"

"What's wrong with Nathan?"

"Oh him, who knows." Haley tried to act nonchalant. "I swear males can be so moody." Brooke knew that something was up just by reading the looks Lucas and Haley kept throwing at one another. But she didn't want to deal with it right now. 

"Must be his time of the month," Brooke joked.

Thinking that she had fooled Brooke, Haley broke out into a smile. "Must be," she agreed. She bustled about the room, putting fresh flowers in the vase by the bed and straightening the cards. At that moment Peyton walked in.

"How you doing B. Davis-Scott?"

"Better if people would quit asking me that."

"What's this? Brooke Davis tired of being the center of attention. I thought this was the kind of thing that sustained you."

"Haha." Peyton pulled a chair up to Brooke's bedside. 

"I'll leave you three to talk," Lucas told them. 

"You don't have to go," Brooke tried to get him to stay.

"No, really I do. Too much estrogen for me." He kissed Brooke lightly, squeezed her hand, gave a wave to Haley and Peyton, and then walked out the door. Silence filled the room.

"Whatcha thinking about B. Davis-Scott?" Peyton asked her friend. Brooke looked from Haley to Peyton.

"Do you two think that maybe…if it's not too much to ask…that maybe you could fill me in on the past four years of my life." Her two friends smiled at her and then at one another.

"We'd be honored," Haley said with a chuckle. "Where's a good place to start. End of senior year maybe."

"Ok well you got kind of moody there for a while and you wouldn't tell Haley or me what was going on. You and Lucas were always walking around talking in hushed tones. Well then you two went and got engaged and of course then we knew what you two love birds were talking about all the time."

"You were student council president and you made a lot of good changes in our school. And you helped Nathan and me through our rough patch."

"I was pretty amazing wasn't I?' Brooke said with a smile.

"You still are," Haley informed her as she took Brooke's hand. 

"But wait the story gets better. So we all graduate and then you and Lucas have a big wedding and everyone's there."

"I bet I looked hot," Brooke said with glee.

"Stop interrupting." Peyton adopted a storytelling voice. "And then you and Lucas decided to go to NYU together. You graduated with a degree in fashion design and he graduated with one in creative writing."

"And then…" Haley picked up the story. "Lucas finished his novel. It was pretty much a long love letter to you and he surprised you with it on your anniversary. He's got some interest in it and things are looking up for him."

"Enough about him what about me? Did I just tag along for the ride?" Her two friends laughed.

"Hardly," Peyton corrected her.

"You opened your own small fashion boutique, Clothes over Bros. And it's actually kind of taken off. You're scheduled to be in a New York fashion show next month."

"A real New York fashion show," Brooke squealed. "And what happens next?"

"Well you'll have to tell us Brooke," Peyton said with a serious look. 

"Oh you mean that's all that happened before some nut job shot me in the head." Brooke rolled her eyes, but Peyton and Haley looked uncomfortable. "My life sounds like a fairy tale."

"It was," Peyton whispered.

"But then someone had to go and ruin it." Brooke got angry. At that point her nurse walked in. "Hey Betty," Brooke greeted her. The nurse gave a smile and then went on with her job. "So I have to ask the two of you a serious question, do you know who shot me?" Haley quickly covered her mouth with her hand and Peyton dropped her gaze to the floor. "You do know. You know who shot me! Who was it?" Neither of the girls looked up. "I asked who was it." Still silence. Brooke turned to her nurse. "Do you know?" Betty gave a start. 

"I know you know and it'd be better for you if you'd just go ahead and tell me otherwise…." Brooke let the threat hang in the air. The nurse gave a look to the two other girls in the room, both of whom had tears streaming down their faces. 

"No one's told her?" The nurse asked with an air of disgust. "Well if no one else's going to tell you, I might as well. You need to know." The nurse set down the items she was holding and turned to Brooke. "You shot yourself Mrs. Scott." Brooke's jaw dropped and Haley whimpered. "With your husband's gun. Held it to your head and fired. And if you ask me it was a damn waste of a bullet."


	3. Chapter 3

The silence engulfed the room the only sounds were the ticking of the clock and Betty finishing the replacement of Brooke's IV drip. It wasn't until she was gone that Brooke finally found her voice. "I shot myself?" Peyton looked up and gave a terse nod. "I shot myself." This time it wasn't a question, it was more of Brooke testing it out. She'd never thought of herself as suicidal here was proof. She touched her scar. And she would be carrying that proof around for the rest of her life. She suddenly felt dirty. "That's why Nathan's angry with me," she surmised.

"He…" Haley coughed to make her voice stronger. "He thinks you were selfish. His words, not mine. He wishes you would have thought about Lucas or me or Jamie before you…." She didn't finish, instead biting her knuckle. "Did you?"

"Did I what?" Brooke tried not to sound harsh.

"Think about Jamie before you did it." Brooke racked her brain. Did she? Did she think of the poor boy she would be leaving behind without a godmother before she pulled the trigger? Did she think of the two best friends sitting before her or was she selfish like Nathan said? Did she think of Lucas, her husband?

"I…I don't know," Brooke replied honestly. Haley nodded with a sniffle. 

"I'm really sorry Brooke, but I've got to go pick up Jamie…I'll see you tomorrow." Without looking back, Haley rushed from the room.

"She took it really hard," Peyton told Brooke. "After you did it for some reason she felt responsible. Like maybe she put too much pressure on you with Jamie. I don't know." Silence seemed to be the theme of the day.

"Did you take it hard?" Peyton inhaled deeply and then wiped at her eyes. 

"You bet I did Brooke. I found you. I came over to pick you up to go shopping. You didn't answer the door and I let myself in. I started freaking out when you didn't answer my calls to you. So I went up to your room and there you were. Lying there on the floor. Your eyes looking back at me but not really seeing. And then I saw the blood and the gun in your hand. I tried to feel for a pulse, but I was shaking too badly. I called 911 and then Lucas. And then I waited. I sat there for fifteen minutes. Alone with my dying best friend and there was nothing I could do. So yeah Brooke, I took it hard." Brooke blinked a few times to stifle the tears. Flashes of blue and suitcases. Then there was blood and Brooke saw herself, lying on the floor waving goodbye. 

"I'm sorry," Brooke whispered. Peyton looked at the mournful look on her friends face. 

"I thought I'd lost you Brooke. I don't know what I'd do without you." Peyton stood up and in one swift motion had got into the bed with Brooke. Brooke wrapped her arms around her sobbing best friend. "Why'd you do it Brooke?" Peyton gasped between sobs. 

"I don't know," Brooke replied for the second time that day. And as she clung to her best friend a small tear rolled down her cheek onto Peyton's curls. 

Blood everywhere. A bang. The gun felt cold in her hand. Suitcases. Blue. Brooke opened her eyes. Her room was dark, a quick glance at the clock revealed that it was midnight. Then Brooke heard stirring in the corner. "You're awake," a voice said. Brooke saw the faint outline of her husband getting out of his chair. "Haley called me, told me that the nurse told you what happened. I had the nurses give you a strong sedative so that you could sleep." Brooke teared up for what felt like the hundredth time that day.

"Lucas, why did I do it? I mean I had the fairy tale life and I just threw it all away. Was all the perfection too much for me to handle?" There was no response, but Brooke saw Lucas moving closer. "Lucas?"

"You didn't do it." 

"Excuse me?"

"Shoot yourself." Lucas's shadow was standing over her bed now. "You weren't suicidal Brooke. Scratch that, you might have been when you married me."

"What are you talking about?" Lucas gave a hollow chuckle and Brooke felt inexplicably scared. She tried to sit up, but the sedative was doing it's job and she felt sluggish.

"We had a good run you and I. In high school we were the couple that everyone wanted to be. And then you had to go and ruin it." Brooke saw as Lucas's shadow moved back and forth across her room. 

"R…ruin it?" she stammered. Lucas stopped.

"You got pregnant."

"I have a…" Lucas cut her off

"No, you lost the baby." 

"This happened towards the end of senior year?" Lucas nodded. That was what her body was trying to protect her from. She had lost a child. Was that what drove her to shoot herself? But Lucas had said that she didn't shoot herself. Then the memories began to flood back to her in waves.

"Do you remember what happened afterwards?" Lucas coaxed. And finally Brooke did. She saw herself screaming at Lucas as he stumbled home drunk for the fifth night in a row. She saw herself cowering in the corner as he threw things around the room.

"You began to drink."

"Yes. Yes. Apparently you're memory is not as bad as we all seemed to think. That's a shame." More memories. Bruises along her stomach. On her back. On her legs. Never where someone would see them. Lucas was too smart for that.

"You hit me. You hit me you son of a bitch!" Brooke sat up and reached for the call button, but Lucas sprang onto her bed, grabbing both of her wrists in one hand and covering her mouth with the other.

"Do you remember what happened next?" Lucas smiled at her, but it wasn't the smile of the Lucas she remembered. Instead it was replaced with a sadistic grin. 

"Suitcases," Brooke mumbled through his hand.

"What was that?" Lucas leaned his ear into her.

"I said suitcases!" Brooke spat. Lucas put his hand back over her mouth as images filled her mind. Brooke was packing. She was finally leaving him. She heard a bang. She saw the blood. Then the cold of the gun in her hand. But that wasn't right. Shouldn't she have felt the gun before the blood? The panic must have showed in her eyes for Lucas's grin widened. 

"Clearly you remember our last rendezvous together. I came home to find you packing, you were leaving me. But you couldn't leave me. The publishing company had just read my book and they were going to publish it. How could I tell them that I had hit that beautiful wife that I wrote that love story about?" He released her wrists and stroked her cheek. Brooke began to think, from the way he was positioned there was no way she could reach the call button, but if he moved a little to the left… "Obviously I couldn't let you telling the public that I was abusive. What would the people of our little town think of me? Not to mention think what that would do to the number of books I sold. So I had to get rid of you. It was so easy. You didn't even get a chance to put up a struggle. I know you, if you had the chance you would have fought me tooth and nail. And then I just planted the gun on you. Put away your suitcases. Made it look like a suicide. And then I went back to work where all I had to do was wait. When Peyton called me, you have no idea how excited I was. But when I got to the hospital they told me that you had survived. That I was lucky. Lucky!" Lucas let out a chuckle. He moved slightly to his right. Not the way Brooke needed him to. She tried to wiggle her wrists free, but he tightened his grip. "Lucky that the wife I had tried to killed had survived? I don't think so. So I played the grieving husband for a while, praying that you would never wake up. But leave it to Brooke Davis to screw up everything. Wake up you did. This time though, luck was on my side. You didn't remember a thing. I knew that eventually you'd put it all together. That's why I've come up with an alternative." Lucas shifted and jumped off the bed. Immediately, Brooke pressed a finger to the call button. "Brooke Brooke Brooke," Lucas said with a shake of his head. "Did you honestly think that little of me?" He reached a hand into his pocket. "I've got to say I'm a bit offended. I've disconnected your call button. There's no one to save you." Lucas pulled a needle from within his coat. "My alternative," he said with a leer. "And I assure you that this time you will not survive." He walked over to her IV. Brooke had never paid attention in school, what was he doing? "This time I will succeed." And with that he inserted the plunger into her IV. 

But there was nothing in the needle what was an empty needle going to…and then it all clicked. Brooke saw the small air bubble making its way down the IV towards her arm. And if it reached her blood stream…Brooke tried to move her arm and rip the IV out, but with her slowed reflexes Lucas was quicker. He held her wrists with his hand. Brooke watched helplessly as the small bubble worked its way down the tube. 

Her death loomed ever closer and finally the last four years came back to Brooke in a string of memories. All of the pain and sadness. Hiding everything from her friends. She hadn't even told them about the baby. She remembered hating Lucas not only for what he was doing but for making her feel weak. And then she remembered the last day. Only this wasn't a string of memories. It seemed as if her body, knowing she was going to die was giving her answers. Brooke watched in her mind as she threw clothes into the suitcase, ready to leave. She picked up her phone and was prepared to punch in Peyton's number when she turned. Lucas was standing in the doorway. He smiled at her and Brooke prepared to push him aside when she saw the gun in his hand. She screamed as he raised his hand and shot her. Then she was back in reality. The reality of her death.

"Goodbye Pretty Girl," the Lucas in her present whispered in her ear. He kissed her forehead and as the bubble finally reached her blood, Brooke saw more flashes. Suitcases. Blood. And then the blue. The blue of Lucas's eyes. Lucas. Her husband. Her killer. And then it all went black. 

**Well I hope that was good, it was just a little something that came to me. I'm feeling angsty lately because I've given up on Brucas. (Though after tonight's episode who knows what Lucas wants) So this was my not so happy Brucas story. Also I just have to say that tonight's episode featured my favorite One Tree Hill quote ever spoiler ahead if you didn't watch the episode don't read on**

**I warned you**

**Brooke: "I want a baby."**

**Peyton: "With me?"**

**Haha good times. Well hopefully this will get my creative juices flowing and I'll be able to write more for my Brooke story. Thanks for reading as always and please review.**


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